The Camino and Me

This is the story of an Irish woman and her 790-kilometre walk across northern Spain along the ancient pilgrim route, the Camino de Santiago. In 2012 Mary Murphy set out from the French town of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in the Pyrenees, with only her journal for accompaniment, in the belief that if she committed herself fully to the power of the Camino it would be a transformative experience. At times comfortless and gruelling, living in simple pilgrim hostels and trekking across mountains, hills and valleys, it proved to be not at all what she had expected. With everything stripped away she encountered a vulnerability within herself that was difficult to bear. Would she do it all again? Absolutely.